i ran out of time for the ridiculous. here is pierce morgan tonight. >> tonight, the race card can't get much closer than this. mitt romney gaining on the president in poll after poll. >> and by the way, i think paul ryan will do great. >> both sides will join me here.

and in the corner the democrats debby wasserman-schultz. >> it was a terrorist attack. let's be honest about it. flip-flopping again on abortion. frank bruni and my panelists go toe to toe. this is tpiers morgan tonight. >> good evening. 27 days to go until the election look at where we stand tonight. 48% for mitt romney and 47% for president obama. anything could happen on this race which tells you how high the stakes are. joe biden is in delaware tonight deep in debate preparations. paul ryan arriving in kentucky a

little while ago. over the last four years we have not had the kind of strong leadership we needed in washington to take on our challenges. time and again he told us he would take on the things that he needs to. he hasn't and i will. >> in the midst of all of this talk of our debate. listen to what he told diane sawyer on abc. >> if you have a bad game you move on and move forward to the next one. welcome. >> how are you tonight? >> the president looks mean

there. he looks like he realized he had a poor game and he is flexing his muscles to come at your guy. are you frightened? >> no. he said today that he thinks he has been too polite. maybe he willp only call us a lie ar five times a day. it is kind of like, i was a lawyer and it is like going into a closing argument when you don't have a descent fact on your side it is tough to pull off. lie ar lliar liar pants on fire. that is the new barack obama for 2012 i guess. >> he is bouncing off the walls at the moment. but you know that these things can change very, very quickly.

interesting moment today. one, mitt romney's reputation as a flip-flopper and the whole issue of conservative issues. let's watch a clip today of governor romney talking about abortion. >> what is the correct position of governor romney? he was always saying we need to revert row wade and now he is saying not even that.

people says whatever it suits him depending on whether he is appealing to the hard right. mr. moderate mitt that we haven't seen for months. >> you know, listen, to what he is referring to as far as is there piles of specific legislation that he is going to point to? the fact is, he is always has been an he is committed to being a pro life president and committed to the fact that we will not be funding planned parenthood to fund abortions and committed to the mexico city legislation so that it is being used to perform abortions and he is a pro life president and he is proud of it. you are taking that sound byte

and referring to piles of legislation sitting in congress and it is much to do about nothing. this president hasn't performed and he is chasing every rob it down the trail making this about his own record and the miserable condition about the economy. >> it comes down to trust. therefore we have to trust him generally. and his position about abortion has flipped all over the place. >> it hasn't. and what he is referring to let me put the allegation to you, the allegation that he was saying before that i want to repeal row versus wade and i want the power to revert to states and now he is saying he

has no plans with the power to refer to abortion. >> he is referring to whether or not there were piles of legislation in congress that he is pursuing in his presidency. and he has said it yet today that we will not be funding abortion with tax pay or money. he is a pro life president and people at the point of conception deserve the freedoms as preserved by our constitut n constitution. this is a rabbit trail. you want to talk about trust. he said he was going to cut the deficit in half.

that is trust. if a politician changes his position on issues do you see it as a cynical exercise? >> no. listen, i hear what you are saying. i think it is possible to learn things about legislation and determine things as you go through lift and you can change your mind. yes, i think that is possible. but what i don't think is possible is for a president to made grandious promises knowing the condition of where we were headed saying that he would fix this economy not even coming close to his promises, that is different. i would say this is a record of makes and breaking promises.

and that is why you can't stand in front of a debate moderator for 90 minutes and make the case for the people. he didn't have a bat night, he is not capable of bringing a game. >> thank you for joining me. here now with the other side is debby. doesn't he have no game? >> well, you know, it is not surprising that my counter part is being critical of president obama when he's got his own candidate as you said this isn't etch asketch. this is simply mitt romney being deceptive and trying to hide the ball. last wednesday on the debate stage mitt romney decided to deceive the american people that he didn't have a $5 trillion tax

cut plan that would increase taxes on the middle class. he wouldn't make abortion he said he would be delighted to sign a bill that would ban abortions if congress sent it to him. mitt romney has campaigned as a severely conservative candidate for president. now that he knows that those -- he is trying to hide who he is and what he stands for. there is a lot of anger building now about the issue of trust.

what do you make of that? it was clumsily handled? should heads roll? >> president obama knew ambassador stephens. he was so appreciative of his work. that diplomatic core works for him. >> it is not about mitt romney and what he did which -- >> or my colleagues in congress. >> that was in appropriate. >> in the sense of blaming the

video. >> piers -- >> it was more likely to have been a terrorist attack. >> i can't believe you would suggest that. it was very unclear what happened and the main thing was to make sure rather than make snap judgements that we take a step back and make a full investigation. >> do you accept that, that embass sambassador rice was sim wrong? >> the initial information that they had was perceived to be that the attack was the result of protests and as the vags has gone on, we have come out and the administration has said that

it was the result of a terrorist attack. what we don't need to do is that my republican colleagues in congress. the first instinct they have had is to jump on the cheap opportunities that they are using this to be is instead of closing ranks we need to get to the bottom of this together and make sure that we take steps to p prevent that from happening geb. >> if you are the families of those that lost their live. >> i think you are moved well on from worrying about what mitt romney said and when he said that. you are wondering was there enough security and clearly there wasn't. and with the world's intelligence, why could you make statements with completely the

wrong explanation? >> piers because these investigations are complicated and detailed and rather than say absolutely nothing and not give information to the american peop people, ambassador rice talked about what they believed to be happening at the time. as time wore on, as the investigation revealed more details, then they came back and said no, this was the result of a terrorist attack. it is irreblt and unamerican for my republican colleagues in congress to be jumping on this for a political opportunity. >> piers let me finish my sentence. >> you are beating the wrong dead horse. >> no, i'm not. >> this is the important that should be flogged is the behavior and statements of those

who are in positions of -- it is pretty unamerican to be putting out false statements before you know the facts. >> it is not okay for you to say that the administration was putting out false statements. they are putting out statements based on the information that they were getting at the time. >> that doesn't mean that it was false. >> if you put out a false statement. >> piers. was you are suggesting is that it was somehow deliberate. it was important to get information out that they had at the time. as they had information they corrected the original information that they put out. there was nothing sinister here. this was the administration

making sure that the american people had the information that we had and as more intelligence was gathered we gave the updated information. what is in fortunate. there is no way around the investigations that republicans in congress have left to go after questioning whether or not there was a deliberate attempt to mid lead. >> the answer to that is to make sure that the original statements are to be made accurate. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> frank had been listening to all of this. i want to get his predictions next.

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he nei need you to go out a find neighbors to join our team and find people to vote. this is a critical election. ohio could well be the place that elects the next president of the united states. >> mitt romney out with the begging bowl for votes. will it work though? joining me now is frank. who would have thought that we would be in this position? i think we both thought barack obama was cruising to victory. >> if you were betting big money it would be hard to know who you were putting the money on. >> i think it isn't necessarily that there is a romney surge that will go on to election day.

we could be having a completely different discussion after the second debate. >> i'm sure the debate will be exploding. but it is about can barack obama take down mitt romney. if he was to win that debate again, it could be game over. tomorrow night's debate does mat th matter. you are right. but a certain kind of narrative is developing. and if say joe biden had a miserable night and we have another couple of days of news stories, that could be very, very important even though one doesn't think of the vice presidential nominees. >> i like his style. however, he hasn't done any public inner interviews for like

five months. >> everyone is talking about what a skilled debater ryan is. there is so much pressure on paul ryan to beat him. he kind of wins. >> joe biden became a senator when paul ryan was three years old. let's play a clip from bill clinton. this was from last night. i think he hit the nail on the head. >> i had a different reaction to that first debate than most people did. i thought -- wow, here is old moderate mitt. where you been boy, i missed you these last two years.

>> it is fascinating. flopping all over the place. your head could spin. the candidates are having so much fun. does it almost play against him? that people watch clinton being all of the thing that is we didn't see of the president, could it hurt him? i was thinking about barack obama during the last debate. i think the contrast is not a good one. however, we should never underestimate the fact that he is a hugely powerful barack obama fan. >> we had an interesting discussion about the libya

situation. extraordinary comments. it is nothing to do with the republicans anymore. this is to do with how the white house, how the ambassadors dealt with this and it seems not good enough to me that you can put out erroneous statements five days after a terrorist attack. >> the point is they jumped to conclusions. they may not have been putting out the information. but they decided to jump to the conclusion that did not criticize or do anything negative to the war on terror. if you jump to the conclusion that you don't yet know is true i'm not sure how much better that is than lying. tackle that head on and say we have been struck by terror again. we are going to come down hard

on this. what is wrong with that position? >> there is nothing wrong with the president asking the questions on that. we have a serious situation here. american lives were lost. we need to know what this means in terms of security going forward. we are not going to get good answers. on the hill, everyone is jockeying for political advantage. i want two predictions. biden versus ryan who is going to win? i think biden wins. >> i think we will be talking about how did obama was. >> i have a feeling that romney could nick it again. good to see you. is the new president obama leaner and meaner? we'll debate tonight's battleground america next.

president obama is accusing mitt romney of flip-flopping on

the issues. before we go anywhere i want to play this attack on his comment on abortion. >> this is another example of governor romney hiding issues he has been campaigning on for year. >> he has made very clear if the bill come to his desk that overturn s roe versus wade that he will overturn that. >> now four weeks before an election he is trying to cloud the question. >> let me start with you. mitt romney has performed more flip-flops on abortion and i don't think this is a flip-flop. >> you can be pro life but also

say we have to turn the economy around first. it has thengs like we are going to fix trade and education. but abortion is not on that list. >> yes, but the reason that he is the nominee is because he ba battle ed in the nominee race. i remember i covered it day after day. he suddenly hardened his positions. he was against gay marriage. he was against all abortions and so on. and now suddenly we have moderate mitt has returned to the frame. the guy we remember from massachusetts. which siis it? >> there is a difference. and i think what he is trying to say, i'm pro life but that is not a peas of legislation.

>> he had it in his mind earlier this year. he was appealing to them to make the nominee. there is a real chance of winning and suddenly we are seeing a much less threatening to a moderate electorate. and i think the president is right when he says he is trying to cloud this issue. and i think that is a dangerous thing. i think the american people had to step up and say i don't want this type of a leader. i don't want someone who says one thing one day and another thing another day. he doesn't seem to have flip-flopped. he is saying one thing one day and another thing another day. flip-flopping is you do change

your mind. there is no indication that he has changed his mind about anything. >> when he was governor of massachusetts he was pro-choice and now he is pro life. >> this latest issue of changing of what one says is not the same as changing one's mind. and you had -- on tonight saying he ticked off the lift of what mitt romney said in the primaries. there is no issue that mitt romney has changed his mind. he is pitching a softer mitt for the cameras for the swing voters trying to pick up more women going into the home stretch. >> this brings women's earn issues to the floor again when

he wants them to be. he was doing very, very well and suddenly he is having to deal with this. >> i don't think that this is very long lived so. the democratic convention was bringing this up and over again. and we come back to the economy. it is what it is going to be about on november 6th. it is not coming from the romney campaign. it is sort of everywhere else that wants to talk about the economy. regardless of what every one else wants him to talk about. >> you don't care about abortion as an issue? >> i think fixing the economy is the most important thing. for me, as long as he has this plan that is going to fix the economy. i think for women voters that make up the majority, women make up the majority of voters, that

is what they want and what they care about. is joe biden going to swing to the rescue like tarzan or is it going to go horribly wrong? [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

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tell them about the millions of jobs barack -- tell them about the kids who can finally afford college. and tell them about the millions of lives that will be changed because of health reform and how barack ended the war in iraq. mitt tell them how together we took out osama bin laden. >> back now, my political all-stars. she bawas going for it there. i get the feeling when he got home after that debate the other

night. a few doors got slammed. what the heck were you doing? i reckon it was the spare room for the president. >> i think he is now understanding which that debate performance hurt him and hurt people down ticket from him. i think another thing they are trying to do is to stop what seems to be a little bit some kind of democratic panic. that some people on the left are looking at this and thinking you see a surge by mitt romney and there is not another debate until tomorrow. what is going to stop. >> i think he is a ridiculous character. it is the end of the world as we

know it. we are all doomed. come on grow a pair. >> how important is the vice president debate do you think? >> joe biden, if he eats paul ryan for dinner is that going to change things dramatically? >> i don't think he is on the menu. i expect that vice president biden is going to be a test driver for the sort of strategy that you might see out of biden in the next debates. if it goes badly, you might say it he wants to do well so that he can stop this momentum that

has been dragging down their ticket. he is he going to get asked a lot of questions about the ideas. i think he is he going to have to stand up and defend those ideas. >> i think there is more pressure on paul ryan. i think joe biden is an experienced campaigners and i think paul ryan could be in trouble here and could be cornered by a raging bull here. >> i think that could be true. the idea that paul ryan is going to say trust me. that is not going to work in a debate where you have an aggressive debater like joe biden and a different moderator who may not let you slide. >> it matters. come on, you got to get in there.

the time has changed. otherwise you can let them draw uno cards and pick a topic. >> you have to say, you know, and great guy, has done his homework, obviously, if someone says something that they have said before, you can say however you said this on so and so date how does that square up with what you say tonight? >> i would love to moderate one of those things. i'm available. i would absolutely love it. >> charles thank you both indeed. come back soon. coming up next. what voters care about most is the economy. let's discuss that. [ male announcer ] every day, thousands of people, like you, are choosing advil® because it helps you keep doing what you love. no wonder it's america's #1 selling pain reliever. you took action, you took advil®. and we thank you. anyone have occasional constipation,

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president obama and governor romney are each making the claim that they can get people working again. with me now is lynn and laura of the henry jackson initiative to increase capitalism. welcome to you both.

you have the answer to all of our economic and job woes in america. what is it about? >> it is by part san and private. we are outside of the realm, dealing with what we think is an important situation in america. it is kind of in ill reput a bit. he says america was like the apartment block 30 years ago. everybody loved it. the ep vy nvy of the world. now you have the great beautiful people up above. you have the middle floors that are crammed and the other floors

that are water soaked and the elevator is broken. >> this is really a private sector focus. what can the business community do to increase the capitalism? we start from the model which is the best for growth and economic production overtime. and we have to look for ways to deal with the way to make it more inclusive. there is a lot going on within the bids community. for example, developing new systems. in the u.s. working more closely with the community college cans to design skills programs and apprenticeships to get you from the classroom into a job. we have increased a number of

engineers in the united states. a lot of the unfilled positions in the united states are it science and technology. >> a company like apple. hugely successful. employing 90% of its workforce outside of don't perceive, of any kind of moral, capitalist duty, in the way of someone like howard schultz is deliberately opening factories in america at a cost of the company, because he can do it cheaper abroad, because he believes he has a moral duty to do some of should more businesses do this? >> yes, we need to do that. but, of course there, are 3 million jobs out there that can't be filled because of what laura is saying, and that's really true of apple. because if we don't have enough technicians, we don't have enough engineers, so that's part of the problem. we need to start educating people for the jobs that are there. and for the jobs that will be most competitive here.

not forcing people to not go abroad, but to come to america where we have the best skilled people. that's what we're trying to -- >> yours is a bipartisan organization. >> absolutely. >> which of the two leaders right now, pound per pound, dollar for dollar, gives the best chance of fulfilling what you would like to see? >> i really think we have laid the question down to ourselves of we're asking what the business community needs to do, and we're not talking about tax policy, not talking about macro policy, about regulatory policy. we say very clearly, what can the business community do on inclusive capitalism? i actually think -- i agree with your assertion that companies in the u.s. and u.k. this is transatlantic. uk companies as well. there are companies saying what can i do to create more jobs in my home country?

and once you pose the question that way, that's what gets you started in things like apprenticeship programs. >> i think it has to be possessed that way and government has to start instructing companies and making more competitive for them to do that. what will it take for to us do to bring your factories back here. >> so the good news in the united states right now is that if you look longer term, the u.s. has become a more competitive place to do business. the dollar in real inflation adjusted terms has come down. our energy price environment because we've had an amazing gas revolution, is a much more favorable environment. we've had high productivity growth over a long period of time, so actual there will is some now reshoring going on. companies like g.e. are actually out there, bringing back at the margin, jobs they had shifted abroad to come here. that's the first -- >> you mentioned g.e., what

about jack welch's tweet, challenging the unbelievable job numbers. these chicago guys will do anything. >> that's jack. that's jack welch. i think what laura is saying is so, so important. we have an opportunity in the business community, regardless of what happens in the election, and what we're talking about. republicans and democrats coming together to say it's not about politics, it's we have a fiscal cliff coming, 25% unemployment among the young this is not republican or democrat. this is not capitalist or occupy wall street. this is a problem for all of us, and what we do teahenry jackson initiative, we showcase companies, like -- like ibm, like starbucks, like -- >> at&t, ge. there's a whole list of them in the report and on the website, we basically highlight real examples of what companies are doing. and part of the initiative is to get companies talking to one another about what they are doing, what works, what dent

work. then you can actually get groups of companies working together in clusters. one of the things discussed in the report is a minnesota group of civic leaders, business leaders, working in a regional development effort. there is a lot that can be done once you pose the problem. >> you are posing it to millions. it's time america's big businesses got together and talk to each other, get stuff done. get america back on track. >> absolutely. >> absolute. >> thank you, both. a pleasure having you. up next, the taliban targets a 14-year-old pakistani girl that refuses to back down to their threats. humans -- even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans.

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tonight's "only in america," the power of one. of all the dispeckable acts committed by the taliban, has anything quite exceeded their attempted to murder a 14-year-old girl for speaking out about against their violent activities. the taliban threatened to behead girl who's go to school, study,

or watch television. showing astonishing courage, she defied the madmen by speaking out and using the internet to spread the message. she told cnn in 2011. >> i have rights, i have the right of education, i have the right to play, i have the right to sing, i have the right to talk, i have the right to go to market. i have the right to speak. >> yesterday, militants stopped the van carrying the woman and two friends home from school. they asked which one was malala, and the taliban raised guns and opened fire. all the girls were injured, but malala will be flown outside the country for treatment. she is expected to survive, but no one knows which brain damage she has suffered. a taliban says if she survives this time, she won't the next time. remember those words. next time somebody questions what right the american military has in taking onth